Another Storm Moves By KC Quietly

By garylezak, on February 28th, 2018

Good morning bloggers,

Well, I made my decision and I will be leaving tomorrow morning for Lake Tahoe. I will be snow chasing and staying at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on the north side of the Lake. It looks like I could get all of Kansas City’s average seasonal snowfall of around 20″ where I am staying. I am expecting at least a foot, and two feet is possible. I will report live on Facebook and Twitter. A major winter storm is coming into the western United States, and a major winter storm is forming over the northeast targeting New York. But, before these big storm systems form, Kansas City is almost in “no man’s land” as this system limps by our area.

At the surface this storm is disorganized. In the upper levels of the atmosphere, what was an organized storm coming into California is now in the process of going through a major transition as ti begins forming into a storm northeast of Kansas City. This surface map, on the left shows how disorganized the pattern is near our area. Remember, Amarillo is still sitting at 0.01″ liquid since October 13th with no snow this season, while Dodge City, KS has had around one inch of snow the entire season thus far. Wichita, KS is at 0.3″ for the season, and here in KC it has been quite frustrating as well with under 10″ of snow for the third consecutive year for the first time in KC recorded history. Now, we still have a good month of severe weather season.

By this evening the storm begins to get organized. In most winters, when a storm begins to get organized, other areas ahead of this cyclogenesis can get hit, but this has not been the case this winter. The storm systems have intensified far to the north and northeast. There will be a few rain showers as this system passes today and even a chance of a few snowflakes tonight, especially north of KC.

By Friday, two days from now, this storm is forecast to really intensify:

By 6 AM Saturday you can see the strong cyclone (Low pressure area) near Cape Cod, and you can see the strong storm at the surface approaching the Northern California coast. Kansas City is again in the middle with a surface ridge extending from northern Arkansas north to Hudson Bay in Canada. A cold air mass will be expanding between these two coastal storm systems.

It reaches 70 degrees Tuesday and I won’t be surprised if it does it again in the next ten days, maybe this weekend.

Sierra Nevada Snowfall:

By 3 PM today, the Lake Tahoe area will be at zero snowfall, but look at what the forecast is from some of the models by Saturday morning:

So, off I am on an adventure tomorrow. I have one more day of my very long stretch at KSHB-TV tonight, and then I should be in the middle of a snowstorm by Thursday afternoon as I drive into the Lake Tahoe basin.

Have a great day and thank you for the words of encouragement as I head out west tomorrow. Go over to the Weather2020 blog to continue our great discussion as we share in this weather experience.